137-487: Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation ) is an antisemitic canard which falsely accuses Jews of murdering Christians in order to use their blood in the performance of religious rituals . Echoing very old myths of secret cultic practices in many prehistoric societies, the claim, as it is leveled against Jews, was rarely attested to in antiquity . According to Tertullian , it originally emerged in late antiquity as an accusation made against members of
274-620: A 16th-century Reformation 's pioneer, was noted for his vicious antisemitism. Luther wrote a 65,000-word thesis demonizing the Jews in which he not only described Jews as a base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth [...] and the synagogue [...] incorrigible whore and an evil slut, but also called for extreme violence towards Jews within Europe . Martin Luther
411-602: A tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude , saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. – Matthew 27:24–25 Jewish deicide was legitimized in Christian theology by Saint John Chrysostom (c. 4th century), a prominent Church Father . In the Second Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965, Pope Paul VI issued
548-580: A Jewish man lynched in 1915 over false allegations of killing a girl. In medieval Europe , Jews were often accused of stealing hosts and desecrating them to reenact the crucifixion of Jesus by stabbing or burning. The first allegation of Jewish host desecration was made recorded in 1243 in Beelitz , near Berlin , and all Jews in Beelitz were burned alive, subsequently called the Judenberg . In
685-556: A Muslim girl. The entire Jewish quarter was pillaged, with the pogrom leaving 12 Jews dead and about 50 injured. In 1983, Mustafa Tlass , the Syrian Minister of Defense , wrote and published The Matzah of Zion , which is a treatment of the Damascus affair of 1840 that repeats the ancient "blood libel", that Jews use the blood of murdered non-Jews in religious rituals such as baking Matza bread. In this book, he argues that
822-708: A giant octopus reaching across the globe. A 2001 Egyptian reprint of Henry Ford 's antisemitic text The International Jew , with the same octopus imagery on the front cover. Among the earliest refutations of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a forgery were a series of articles printed in The Times in 1921, which revealed the forgery's content to have been plagiarized from the unrelated satire The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu . The Russian imperial state popularized
959-572: A high priority of Jewish concerns" despite holding prominent positions in the American media industry. Variants on this theme focus on Hollywood, the press and the music industry. Since 2015 when the European migrant crisis happened, the White genocide conspiracy theory has gained traction among white nationalists. Jews are often accused of facilitating unrestricted non-white immigration to alter
1096-434: A kind of scientific prediction. Posidonius was one of the first to attempt to prove Euclid's fifth postulate of geometry . He suggested changing the definition of parallel straight lines to an equivalent statement that would allow him to prove the fifth postulate. From there, Euclidean geometry could be restructured, placing the fifth postulate among the theorems instead. In addition to his writings on geometry, Posidonius
1233-584: A local field. A cult developed, and the boy was canonized in 1820. His relics are still the object of pilgrimage. On All Saints Day , 27 July 1997, the Belarusian state TV showed a film alleging the story is true. The revival of the cult in Belarus was cited as a dangerous expression of antisemitism in international reports on human rights and religious freedoms which were passed to the UNHCR . The attitude of
1370-491: A major theme of the persecution of Jews in Europe from that period down to modern times. Blood libels often claim that Jews require human blood for the baking of matzos , an unleavened flatbread which is eaten during Passover . Earlier versions of the blood libel accused Jews of ritually re-enacting the crucifixion . The accusations often assert that the blood of Christian children is especially coveted, and historically, blood libel claims have been made in order to account for
1507-536: A paranoid belief in Jewish conspiracies to undermine the church and Western civilization [...] preach that contemporary Jews are responsible for deicide, endorsed The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , and claimed that there was a factual basis for the medieval blood libel . One of its bishops, Richard Williamson , is a well known Holocaust denier. Nevertheless, the Vatican and many Catholics worldwide are still denying
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#17327766105841644-629: A part of their environment. For example, Posidonius considered the climate of Arabia and the life-giving strength of the sun, tides (taken from his book on the oceans), and climatic theory to explain people's ethnic or national characters. Of Posidonius's work on tactics, The Art of War , the Greek historian Arrian complained that it was written 'for experts', which suggests that Posidonius may have had first hand experience of military leadership or, perhaps, used knowledge he gained from his acquaintance with Pompey . In his own era, his writings on almost all
1781-517: A persistent confusion around Posidonius's result. Ptolemy used Posidonius's lower value of 180,000 stades (about 33% too low) for the Earth's circumference in his Geography . This was the number used by Christopher Columbus to underestimate the distance to India as 70,000 stades. In his Histories , Posidonius continued the World History of Polybius . His history of the period 146–88 BC
1918-458: A pioneering 16th-century Christian reformer , also consists of such a libel that is still being promoted. For instance, radio host James Edwards alleged that Jews "hate Christianity" and were "using pornography as a subversive tool against us". The ADL noted, This is not to say that Jews have historically borne no animus towards Jesus and the Apostles, or towards Christianity as a whole. In
2055-535: A precaution against nausea. Griffith's antisemitism is still present in the party. For instance, lower house parliamentarian Réada Cronin alleged in 2020 that Jews were "responsible for European wars" and "Adolf Hitler was a pawn of the [Jewish] Rothschilds [...may] not have been too far wrong". In the United States , J.J. Goldberg , The Forward 's editorial director, published a study of such trope in 1997. He concluded that Jewish Americans "do not make
2192-406: A result, it has acquired a broader metaphoric meaning. However, this wider usage of the term remains controversial. The earliest versions of the accusations involving Jews supposedly crucifying Christian children on Easter /Passover is said to be because of a prophecy. There is no reference to the use of blood in unleavened matzo bread at this time yet, which develops later as a major motivation for
2329-910: A saint was removed in 1965, several towns in Spain still commemorate the blood libel. In late 1553 or 1554, Suleiman the Magnificent , the reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire , issued a firman (royal decree) which formally denounced blood libels against the Jews. In 1840, following the Western outrage arising from the Damascus affair , British politician and leader of the British Jewish community, Sir Moses Montefiore , backed by other influential westerners including Britain's Lord Palmerston and Damascus consul Charles Henry Churchill ,
2466-427: A school there. Ian Kidd remarks that Rhodes "was attractive, not only as an independent city, commercially prosperous, go-ahead and with easy links of movement in all directions, but because it was welcoming to intellectuals, for it already had a strong reputation particularly for scientific research from men like Hipparchus ." Although little is known of the organization of his school, it is clear that Posidonius had
2603-695: A series of voyages around the Mediterranean gathering scientific data and observing the customs and people of the places he visited. He traveled in Greece, Hispania , Italy, Sicily , Dalmatia , Gaul , Liguria , North Africa , and on the eastern shores of the Adriatic . In Hispania , on the Atlantic coast at Gades (the modern Cadiz ), Posidonius could observe tides much higher than in his native Mediterranean. He wrote that daily tides are related to
2740-514: A steady stream of Greek and Roman students, as demonstrated by the eminent Romans who visited it. Pompey sat in on a lecture in 66 and did so again in 62 on return from campaigning in the East. On this latter occasion the subject of the lecture was "There is no good but moral good". Posidonius was probably in his seventies at this time and was suffering from gout . He illustrated the theme of his lecture by pointing to his painful leg and declaring "It
2877-541: A well in Norwich between the 12th and 13th century (five that were shown by DNA testing to likely be members of a single Jewish family) were very possibly killed as part of one of these pogroms . After the death of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln , there were trials and executions of Jews. The case was described by Matthew Paris and later by Chaucer , and formed the basis of the Sir Hugh ballads which have circulated to
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#17327766105843014-557: Is inherently white supremacist. It depends on stoking fears that a non-white population, which the theory's proponents characterize as "inferior," will displace a white majority. It is also antisemitic. Some proponents of the "great replacement" do not explicitly attribute the plot to Jews. Instead, they blame powerful Jewish individuals such as financier and philanthropist George Soros or use coded antisemitic language to identify shadowy "elites" or "globalists." The ADL documented several tropes that had associated Jews with banking, including
3151-409: Is likely that some Jews lived there during this period and kept their religion secret. After the expulsion, Edward I renovated "Little Saint Hugh's" shrine and decorated it with his Royal insignia, as part of his efforts to justify his actions. As Stacey notes: "A more explicit identification of the crown with the ritual crucifixion charge can hardly be imagined." Much like the blood libel of England,
3288-447: Is mainly spread by white supremacists. Refuters contended that food producers would not engage in the certification process if it was not profitable to obtain the "kosher certification", which is actually a voluntary business decision, while the "resultant" increased sales would lower the average cost. Jews have been blamed for the crucifixion of Jesus throughout history: When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather
3425-490: Is no good, pain; bothersome you may be, but you will never persuade me that you are an evil." When Cicero was in his late twenties, he attended a course of Posidonius' lectures, and later invited Posidonius to write a monograph on Cicero's own consulship (Posidonius politely refused). In his later writings Cicero repeatedly refers to Posidonius as "my teacher" and "my dear friend". Posidonius died in his eighties in 51 BC; his grandson, Jason of Nysa , succeeded him as head of
3562-461: Is quite certain that the Jews of every province annually decide by lot which congregation or city is to send Christian blood to the other congregations." Thomas of Cantimpré also believed that since the time when the Jews called out to Pontius Pilate , "His blood be on us, and on our children" ( Matthew 27:25 ), they have been afflicted with hemorrhages, a condition equated with male menstruation: A very learned Jew, who in our day has been converted to
3699-433: Is said to have filled 52 volumes. His Histories continue the account of the rise and expansion of Roman dominance, which he appears to have supported. Posidonius did not follow Polybius's more detached and factual style, for Posidonius saw events as caused by human psychology; while he understood human passions and follies, he did not pardon or excuse them in his historical writing, using his narrative skill in fact to enlist
3836-429: Is the six-year-old boy Gavriil Belostoksky from the village Zverki . According to the legend supported by the church, the boy was kidnapped from his home during the holiday of Passover while his parents were away. Shutko, who was a Jew from Białystok , was accused of bringing the boy to Białystok, piercing him with sharp objects and draining his blood for nine days, then bringing the body back to Zverki and dumping it at
3973-561: The Nostra aetate to refute the libel, What happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive , nor against the Jews of today. Against radical traditionalists' objection, it was distantly followed up by an apology in 2000 for the two millennia of Catholic persecution of Jews, amid claims of the Second Temple menorah still being hidden in
4110-1072: The 2nd century , malicious allegations of Jewish guilt have become a recurring motif in antisemitic tropes, which take the form of libels, stereotypes or conspiracy theories. They typically present Jews as cruel, powerful or controlling, some of which also feature the denial or trivialization of historical atrocities against Jews. These tropes have lead to pogroms , genocides, persecutions and systemic racism for Jews throughout history . Antisemitic tropes mainly evolved in monotheistic societies, whose religions were derived from Judaism, many of which were traceable to Christianity's early days . These tropes were mirrored by 7th-century Quranic claims that Jews were "visited with wrath from Allah " due to their supposed practice of usury and disbelief in His revelations. In medieval Europe , antisemitic tropes were expanded in scope to justify mass persecutions and expulsions of Jews . Particularly, Jews were repeatedly massacred over accusations of causing epidemics and "ritually consuming" Christian babies' blood . In
4247-487: The 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel , with the victims overwhelmingly Jewish, including several Holocaust survivors . The publication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in 1903 is usually considered the beginning of contemporary conspiracy theory literature. The trope embodied by the book is manifested in both writings and imagery, where Jews are accused of plotting world domination nefariously. Typical examples include Nazi-originated cartoons depicting Jews as
Blood libel - Misplaced Pages Continue
4384-629: The American University in Beirut ." In 2003, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram published a series of articles by Osama El-Baz , a senior advisor to the then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak . Among other things, Osama El-Baz explained the origins of the blood libel against the Jews. He said that Arabs and Muslims have never been antisemitic, as a group, but he accepted the fact that a few Arab writers and media figures attack Jews "on
4521-645: The Catholic Church towards these accusations and the cults venerating children supposedly killed by Jews has varied over time. The Papacy generally opposed them, although it had problems in enforcing its opposition. In 1911, the Dictionnaire apologétique de la foi catholique , an important French Catholic encyclopedia, published an analysis of the blood libel accusations. This may be taken as being broadly representative of educated Catholic opinion in continental Europe at that time. The article noted that
4658-458: The Earth's circumference by the arc measurement method, by reference to the position of the star Canopus . As explained by Cleomedes, Posidonius observed Canopus on but never above the horizon at Rhodes, while at Alexandria he saw it ascend as far as 7½ degrees above the horizon (the meridian arc between the latitude of the two locales is actually 5 degrees 14 minutes). Since he thought Rhodes
4795-472: The First Crusade . Some Jews committed suicide and killed their own children rather than exposing them to forced conversion to Christianity. Yuval wrote that Christians may have argued that if Jews could kill their own children, they could also kill Christian children. In England in 1144, the Jews of Norwich were falsely accused of ritual murder after a boy, William of Norwich , was found dead in
4932-526: The Lauter River; it was claimed that Jews had cut into the child to acquire his blood, and that the child continued bleeding for five days. At Oberwesel, near Easter of 1287, alleged miracles again constituted the only evidence against the Jews. In this case, it was claimed that the corpse of the 16-year-old Werner of Oberwesel (also referred to as "Good Werner") landed at Bacharach and the body performed miracles, particularly medicinal miracles. Light
5069-594: The Nation of Islam (NOI) for circulation among their Black American audience. In 2003, the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed drew a standing ovation at an OIC conference after alleging: Today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them [...] They invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong [...] they have gained control of
5206-567: The Stoic categorization of philosophy into physics (natural philosophy, including metaphysics and theology), logic (including dialectic), and ethics. These three categories for him were, in Stoic fashion, inseparable and interdependent parts of an organic, natural whole. He compared them to a living being, with physics the flesh and blood, logic the bones and tendons holding the organism together, and finally ethics—the most important part—corresponding to
5343-567: The Talmud with Yechiel of Paris , and who in 1242 caused the burning of numerous Talmudic manuscripts in Paris. It is known that Thomas was personally acquainted with Nicholas. Nicholas Donin and another Jewish convert, Theobald of Cambridge, are greatly credited with the adoption and the belief of the blood libel myth in Europe. The first known case outside England was in Blois , France, in 1171. This
5480-571: The Third Council of the Lateran threatened excommunication for any Christians lending money at interest, causing those who desired loans to approach Jews. Natural tension between gentile debtors and Jewish creditors reinforced pre-existing anti-Jewish biases. In England, the departing Crusaders were joined by debtors in the massacres of Jews at London and York in 1189–1190 . In 1275, Edward I of England punished Jewish creditors by passing
5617-603: The blood libel included the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX , while Pope Clement VI said that the Black Death could not be blamed on Jews. Contemporarily, the blood libel still appears frequently in Muslim countries' state media, publications and online platforms as per their official anti-Zionism. A few Arab writers, who happened not to be antisemitic, condemned
Blood libel - Misplaced Pages Continue
5754-488: The blood libel run contrary to Judaism. The Ten Commandments forbid murder . The use of blood in cooking is banned by Kashrut as blood is deemed ritually unclean . The Hebrew Bible , or Old Testament , and Halakha portray human sacrifice as one of the evils separating the pagans of Canaan from the Hebrews. Jews were prohibited from performing these rituals. Ritual cleanliness for priests prohibited even being in
5891-510: The blood libel . The Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram published articles by Osama Al-Baz, a senior advisor to the late Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak , explaining the origins of the blood libel . Whereas, the blood libel is still peddled by Christian fundamentalists, including the Radical Traditionalist Catholics ( rad trads ) and American ultraconservative pundit Candace Owens , who alleged that Leo Frank ,
6028-510: The development of banking . In the 20th century, newer allegations of Jews masterminding the propagation of Communism emerged, including The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1903). Judeo-Bolshevism was popularized by Hitler's to conflate Jews with communists and present them as an existential threat to justify the Holocaust. A Polish equivalent of this trope is Żydokomuna , which accused "most Jews" of having "collaborated with
6165-572: The tide is caused by the Moon. Posidonius was, however, wrong about the cause. Thinking that the Moon was a mixture of air and fire, he attributed the cause of the tides to the heat of the Moon, hot enough to cause the water to swell but not hot enough to evaporate it. He recorded observations on both earthquakes and volcanoes, including accounts of the eruptions of the volcanoes in the Aeolian Islands , north of Sicily . Posidonius calculated
6302-426: The "Jewish power" myth is often veiled as the "criticism" of "Jewish plutocrats" allegedly behind political changes. For instance, QAnon conspiracy theorists believe in the existence of a " satanic cabal" of global elites ( globalists ) "drinking children's blood" to achieve "world domination". Two-time heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury also believes in a " Zionist plot " to "lower" public moral standard via
6439-524: The (Christian) faith, informs us that one enjoying the reputation of a prophet among them, toward the close of his life, made the following prediction: 'Be assured that relief from this secret ailment, to which you are exposed, can only be obtained through Christian blood (" solo sanguine Christiano ").' This suggestion was followed by the ever-blind and impious Jews, who instituted the custom of annually shedding Christian blood in every province, in order that they might recover from their malady. Thomas added that
6576-467: The 1881 Fornaraki affair . However the libel almost always came from the Christian community, sometimes with the connivance of Greek or French diplomats. The Jews could usually count on the goodwill of the Ottoman authorities and increasingly on the support of British, Prussian and Austrian representatives. In the 1910 Shiraz blood libel , the Jews of Shiraz , Iran , were falsely accused of murdering
6713-600: The 19th century, lies about Jews plotting "world domination" by "controlling" mass media and global banking spread, which mutated into modern tropes, especially the libel that Jews " invented and promoted communism ". These tropes fatefully formed Adolf Hitler 's worldview , caused WWII and the Holocaust , which killed at least 6 million Jews (67% pre-war European Jews ). Since the 20th century, antisemitic libels' usage has been documented among groups that self-identify as "anti-Zionists". Most contemporary tropes feature
6850-488: The 1st century BCE. This idea is exampled later in history, when Socrates Scholasticus ( fl. 5th century) reported that in a drunken frolic, a group of Jews bound a Christian child to a cross in mockery of the death of Christ and scourged him until he died. The blood libels emerged at a time when the church and particularly the Crusades were driving increasingly anti-Judaic discourses. These were later reinforced through
6987-422: The 4th century, Church Father Saint John Chrysostom described a synagogue as worse than a brothel and a drinking shop [...] a den of scoundrels, the repair of wild beasts, a temple of demons, the refuge of brigands and debauchees, and the cavern of devils, a criminal assembly of the assassins of Christ. His anti-Jewish homily was legitimized in Christian theology as the basis of Christian antisemitism for
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#17327766105847124-628: The Atlantic slave trade , implying that they are "White oppressors". Several BHI sects have been classified as hate groups by at least three American civil rights groups, the ADL , SPLC and SWC , with the ADL claiming that not all BHI sects were anti-Semitic. Posidonius Posidonius ( / ˌ p ɒ s ɪ ˈ d oʊ n i ə s / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ποσειδώνιος Poseidṓnios , "of Poseidon ") "of Apameia" (ὁ Ἀπαμεύς) or "of Rhodes " (ὁ Ῥόδιος) ( c. 135 – c. 51 BC ),
7261-519: The BHI are not associated with either Jews or Christians . Just as the "Messianic Judaism" founded by Conservative Baptist Association 's Evangelical priest Moishe Rosen , the BHI do not meet any criteria for being Jewish . The BHI have seen themselves as the only "real Jews". They deny contemporary Jews' Jewish ancestry and historical connection to Israel . BHI have accused contemporary Jews of being " European converts to Judaism " and running
7398-627: The Bishop of Lincoln. He confessed that the boy had been crucified by the Jews, who had assembled at Lincoln for that purpose. King Henry III , who had reached Lincoln at the beginning of October, had Copin executed and 91 of the Jews of Lincoln seized and sent up to London, where 18 of them were executed. The rest were pardoned at the intercession of the Franciscans or Dominicans. Within a few decades, Jews would be expelled from all of England in 1290 and not allowed to return until 1657, although it
7535-543: The Blois Jewish community, as well as surviving holy texts, were ransomed. As a result of this case, the Jews garnered new promises from the king. The burned bodies of the sentenced Jews were supposedly maintained unblemished through the burning, a claim which is a well-known miracle, martyr myth for both Jews and Christians. There is significant primary source material from this case including a letter revealing moves for Jewish protection with King Louis VII . Responding to
7672-744: The Celts honored the Druids , whom Posidonius saw as philosophers, and concluded that, even among the barbaric, "pride and passion give way to wisdom, and Ares stands in awe of the Muses." Posidonius wrote a geographic treatise on the lands of the Celts which has since been lost, but which is referred to extensively (both directly and otherwise) in the works of Diodorus of Sicily , Strabo , Caesar and Tacitus ' Germania . In Rhodes , Posidonius actively took part in political life, and he attained high office when he
7809-553: The Church council Lateran IV which mandated the segregation of Christian and Jewish society, and built an apparatus of enforcement across Europe. At a local context, many of the English examples may have included an element of church competition for saintly cults, with the income that veneration produced. Israel Yuval proposed that the blood libel may have originated in the 12th century due to Christian views on Jewish behavior during
7946-471: The Earth's circumference to be 180,000 stadia or 18,000 mi (29,000 km). Pliny the Elder mentions Posidonius among his sources and without naming him reported his method for estimating the Earth's circumference. He noted, however, that Hipparchus had added some 26,000 stadia to Eratosthenes's estimate. The smaller value offered by Strabo and the different lengths of Greek and Roman stadia have created
8083-536: The French lawyer Adolphe Crémieux , Austrian consul Giovanni Gasparo Merlato, Danish missionary John Nicolayson , and Solomon Munk, persuaded Sultan Abdulmejid I in Constantinople , to issue a firman on 6 November 1840 intended to halt the spread of blood libel accusations in the Ottoman Empire. The edict declared that blood libel accusations were a slander against Jews and they would be prohibited throughout
8220-510: The Jewish deputation attending the coronation of Richard the Lionheart was attacked by the crowd. Massacres of Jews at London and York soon followed. In 1190 on 16 March 150 Jews were attacked in York and then massacred when they took refuge in the royal castle, where Clifford's Tower now stands, with some committing suicide rather than being taken by the mob. The remains of 17 bodies thrown in
8357-528: The Jews had appealed for protection, in order to manage the miracle story, had the archbishop of Mainz declare great wrong had been done to the Jew. This apparent declaration was very limited in effectiveness. A statement was made, in the Chronicle of Konrad Justinger of 1423, that at Bern in 1293 or 1294 the Jews tortured and murdered a boy called Rudolph (sometimes also referred to as Ruff, or Ruof). The body
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#17327766105848494-402: The Jews had misunderstood the words of their prophet, who by his expression " solo sanguine Christiano " had meant not the blood of any Christian, but that of Jesus – the only true remedy for all physical and spiritual suffering. Thomas did not mention the name of the "very learned" proselyte, but it may have been Nicholas Donin of La Rochelle , who, in 1240, had a disputation on
8631-508: The Jews in one town. These accusations and their effects also, in some cases, led to royal interference on behalf of the Jews. Thomas of Monmouth's story of the annual Jewish meeting to decide which local community would kill a Christian child also quickly spread to the continent. An early version appears in Bonum Universale de Apibus ii. 29, § 23, by Thomas of Cantimpré (a monastery near Cambray). Thomas wrote, in around 1260, "It
8768-486: The Jews were brought to it. The woman and the Jews allegedly confessed and were subsequently killed. That a judicial execution was summarily committed in consequence of the accusation is evident from the manner in which the Nuremberg "Memorbuch" and the synagogal poems refer to the incident. In 1270, at Weissenburg , of Alsace , a supposed miracle alone decided the charge against the Jews. A child's body had shown up in
8905-568: The Moon on the tides. Posidonius, nicknamed "the Athlete" (Ἀθλητής), was born around 135 BC. He was born into a Greek family in Apamea , a Hellenistic city on the river Orontes in northern Syria. As historian Philip Freeman puts it: "Posidonius was Greek to the core". Posidonius expressed no love for his native city, Apamea, in his writings and he mocked its inhabitants. As a young man he moved to Athens and studied under Panaetius ,
9042-471: The Moon's orbit, while tidal heights vary with the cycles of the Moon, and he hypothesized about yearly tidal cycles synchronized with the equinoxes and solstices. In Gaul , he studied the Celts . He left descriptions of customs such as nailing skulls to doorways as trophies, which he witnessed, and vivid legends told to him by the Celts, such as a story that in the past, men were paid to allow their throats to be slit for public amusement. But he noted that
9179-595: The NBPP-backed candidate Cynthia McKinney lost to her rival Hank Johnson , NBPP's members alleged "Jewish electoral domination". In April 2017, the Politico magazine published an article alleging "links" between the then-U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Jewish religious group Chabad . Jonathan Greenblatt ( CEO ) of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned
9316-428: The Ottoman Empire, and read in part: ... and for the love we bear to our subjects, we cannot permit the Jewish nation, whose innocence for the crime alleged against them is evident, to be worried and tormented as a consequence of accusations which have not the least foundation in truth... In the remainder of the 19th century and into the 20th century, there were many instances of the blood libel in Ottoman lands, such as
9453-490: The Soviet Union" in "importing communism" to Poland. Candace Owens , an American ultraconservative pundit, endorses such libel. She alleged that "Stalin was a Jew" and his followers were "part of a Jewish cabal". The "Kosher tax" trope claims that food producers are "forced" to pay an exorbitant premium to indicate that their products are kosher , which is allegedly passed on to consumers by price increase. It
9590-582: The Sun emanated a vital force that permeated the world. He attempted to measure the distance and size of the Sun . In about 90 BC, Posidonius estimated the distance from the Earth to the Sun (see astronomical unit ) to be 9,893 times the Earth's radius. This was still too small by half. In measuring the size of the Sun, however, he reached a figure larger and more accurate than those proposed by other Greek astronomers and Aristarchus of Samos . Posidonius also calculated
9727-647: The Vatican. Radical Traditionalist Catholics ( rad trads ) who oppose Christian–Jewish reconciliation have continued peddling the Jewish deicide . Subreddits r/Catholicism and r/AskAChristian on Reddit are reportedly frequented by rad trads for years. As per the SPLC, the rad trads often circulate content from the forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion . Notably, the rad trads have peddled: The ADL noted, Traditionalist Catholics [...] continued to incorporate explicit antisemitism into their theology [...]
9864-414: The actual circumference of 24,901 mi (40,074 km). Posidonius was informed in his approach to finding the Earth's circumference by Eratosthenes , who a century earlier arrived at a figure of 252,000 stadia; both men's figures for the Earth's circumference were uncannily accurate. Strabo noted that the distance between Rhodes and Alexandria is 3,750 stadia, and reported Posidonius's estimate of
10001-440: The anti-usury Statute of Jewry . Many English Jews were arrested, 300 of whom were hanged. In 1290, all Jews were expelled from England . German-American Jewish historian Walter Laqueur noted, The issue at stake was not really whether the Jews had entered it out of greed [...] The high tide of Jewish usury was before the fifteenth century; as cities grew in power and affluence, the Jews were squeezed out from money lending with
10138-538: The article as "evok[ing] age-old myths about Jews". In December 2023, Australian Green MP Jenny Leong , echoed Mahathir Mohammed's 2003 speech at a Palestine Justice Movement forum: the Jewish lobby and the Zionist lobby are infiltrating into every single aspect of what is ethnic community groups [...] they rock up to every community event because their tentacles reach into the areas that try and influence power. Leong apologized after being condemned. Whereas,
10275-495: The basis of the racist fallacies and myths that originated in Europe ". He urged people not to succumb to "myths" such as the blood libel. Nevertheless, on many occasions in modern times, blood libel stories have appeared in the state-sponsored media of a number of Arab and Muslim nations, as well as on their television shows and websites, and books which allege instances of Jewish blood libels are not uncommon there. The blood libel
10412-618: The bestiality of the Jew climaxed in the image of the Judensau . Judensau ( German for Jews' sow ) is a dehumanizing imagery of Jews that appeared around the 13th century . Its popularity lasted for six centuries until Nazi revival. Sculptures of Jews, typically portrayed as "obscene human contact" with unclean animals like pigs and owls, were often found on cathedral or church ceilings, pillars, utensils, etchings etc. The images always combined multiple antisemitic motifs, which sometimes included derisive prose or poetry. Martin Luther ,
10549-434: The boundary between the clouds and the heavens lies about 40 stadia above the Earth. Posidonius's fame beyond specialized philosophical circles had begun, at the latest, in the eighties with the publication of the work " About the ocean and the adjacent areas ". This work was not only an overall representation of geographical questions according to current scientific knowledge, but it served to popularize his theories about
10686-646: The climatic central position of Italy was an essential condition of the Roman destiny to dominate the world. As a Stoic, he did not, however, make a fundamental distinction between the civilized Romans as masters of the world and the less civilized peoples. Posidonius's writings on the Jews were probably the source of Diodorus Siculus 's account of the siege of Jerusalem and possibly also for Strabo 's. Some of Posidonius's arguments are contested by Josephus in Against Apion . Like Pytheas , Posidonius believed
10823-506: The crime. The earliest known antecedent is tenth century, from Damocritus (not Democritus the philosopher) mentioned in the Suda , who alleged that "every seven years the Jews captured a stranger, brought him to the temple in Jerusalem , and sacrificed him, cutting his flesh into bits." The Greco-Egyptian author Apion claimed that the Jews sacrificed Greek victims in their temple . Here,
10960-606: The current owner of X (formerly Twitter ), has also been accused of endorsing the theory, when he showed approval of the theory in a tweet. In the US, there have been several terrorist attacks associated with the belief in the theory, the most recent of which include the 2017 Unite the Right rally , where dozens of casualties occurred in a car ramming attack , and the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting , where 11 were killed and 7 injured. The SPLC noted, The "great replacement" theory
11097-417: The denial or trivialization of anti-Jewish atrocities, especially the denial or trivialization of the Holocaust , or of the Jewish exodus from Muslim countries . Holocaust denial and antisemitic tropes are inextricable, typical of which is the libel that the Holocaust was "fabricated" or "exaggerated" to "advance" Jews' or Israel's interests. The most recent example is the denial or trivialization of
11234-539: The early Christian community of the Roman Empire . Once this accusation had been dismissed, it was revived a millennium later as a Christian slander against Jews in the medieval period . The first examples of medieval blood libel emerged in England in the mid 1100s before spreading into other parts of Europe, especially France and Germany. This libel, alongside those of well poisoning and host desecration , became
11371-535: The eastern shores of the Adriatic. He settled as a teacher at Rhodes where his fame attracted numerous scholars. Next to Panaetius he did most, by writings and personal lectures, to spread Stoicism to the Roman world, and he became well known to many leading men, including Pompey and Cicero . His works are now lost, but they proved a mine of information to later writers. The titles and subjects of more than twenty of them are known. In common with other Stoics of
11508-491: The economic and political interests of leaders perpetuating these myths. The use of blood and other human products for medicinal or magical purposes was an established concept in medieval Europe. As such illegal ways of accessing these item were ascribed (in 1507) by Franciscans to Dominicans, by others to sorcerers and devil worshippers as well as Jews. One of the child-saints in the Russian Orthodox Church
11645-567: The established tradition. Ethics, Posidonius taught, is about practice not just theory. It involves knowledge of both the human and the divine, and a knowledge of the universe to which human reason is related. It was once the general view that Posidonius departed from the monistic psychology of the earlier Stoics. Chrysippus had written a work called On Passions in which he affirmed that reason and emotion were not separate and distinct faculties, and that destructive passions were instead rational impulses which were out-of-control. According to
11782-413: The ethical works of Posidonius, including Cicero and Seneca , grouped Chrysippus and Posidonius together and saw no opposition between them. The philosophical grand vision of Posidonius was that the universe itself was interconnected as an organic whole, providential and organised in all respects, from the development of the physical world to the behaviour of living creatures. Panaetius had doubted both
11919-418: The fabric of White-majority societies. Such libel is often peddled in conjunction with older myths, like the " Jewish power ", to raise its plausibility among the targeted audience. Much of such sentiment stems from an extinction anxiety about the majority White population becoming outnumbered by the non-white population, who are often assumed as "foreign" and " incompatible " with the mainstream. Elon Musk,
12056-574: The following centuries, similar libels circulated throughout Europe and caused several pogroms , which did not subside until Sigismund II Augustus repudiated it in 1558. However, massacres resulted from host desecration libels happened until the 19th century. The last recorded accusations were brought up in Barlad, Romania , in 1836 and 1867 respectively. Throughout history, Christians alleged that Jews either dislike or sought to destroy Christianity. A 65,000-word treatise written by Martin Luther ,
12193-433: The following millennia, ultimately subject to Nazi co-optation to garner Christian support for the Holocaust. In such regard, historian Jeremy Cohen wrote, Yet the very impulse that propelled the Christian imagination from the Jew as a deliberate killer of Christ to the Jew as a perpetrator of the most heinous crimes against humanity also led to the portrayal of the Jew as inhuman, satanic , animal-like, and monstrous [...]
12330-637: The forgery to discredit the Bolsheviks by accusing Jews of organizing the Russian revolution . The forgery scapegoated Jews as the leading subversive force to try to dispel mass revolt and keep the empire united . Later, the trope spread westward when the Great Depression and Nazism's rise catalyzed its dissemination. A Polish equivalent goes by Judeopolonia , which posited an imaginary Jewish domination of Poland. Contemporarily,
12467-454: The history of blood libel in continental Europe consists of unsubstantiated claims made about the corpses of Christian children. There were frequently associated supernatural events speculated about these discoveries and corpses, events which were often attributed by contemporaries to miracles. Also, just as in England, these accusations in continental Europe typically resulted in the execution of numerous Jews – sometimes even all, or close to all,
12604-545: The horizon. Ptolemy's approval of Posidonius's result, rather than Eratosthenes's earlier and more correct figure, caused it to become the accepted value for the Earth's circumference for the next 1,500 years. Posidonius fortified the Stoicism of the middle period with contemporary learning. Next to his teacher Panaetius, he did most, by writings and personal contacts, to spread Stoicism in the Roman world. A century later, Seneca referred to Posidonius as one of those who had made
12741-482: The internal connections of the world, to show how all the forces had an effect on each other and how the interconnectedness applied also to human life, to the political just as to the personal spheres. In this work, Posidonius detailed his theory of the effect on a people's character by the climate, which included his representation of the "geography of the races". This theory was not solely scientific, but also had political implications—his Roman readers were informed that
12878-537: The leading Stoic philosopher of the age, and the last undisputed head ( scholarch ) of the Stoic school in Athens. When Panaetius died in 110 BC, Posidonius would have been around 25 years old. Rather than remain in Athens, he instead settled in Rhodes , and gained citizenship. In Rhodes, Posidonius maintained his own school which would become the leading institution of the time. Around the 90s BC Posidonius embarked on
13015-551: The leading figures of late republican Rome, including Cicero and Pompey, both of whom visited him in Rhodes. In his twenties, Cicero attended his lectures (77 BC) and they continued to correspond. Cicero in his De Finibus closely followed Posidonius's presentation of Panaetius's ethical teachings. Posidonius met Pompey when he was Rhodes's ambassador in Rome and Pompey visited him in Rhodes twice, once in 66 BC during his campaign against
13152-587: The mass execution, the Twentieth of Sivan was declared a fast day by Rabbenu Tam . In this case in Blois, there was not yet the myth proclaimed that Jews needed the blood of Christians. In 1235, after the dead bodies of five boys were found on Christmas day in Fulda , the inhabitants of the town claimed the Jews had killed them to consume their blood, and burned 34 Jews to death with the help of Crusaders assembled at
13289-478: The media and finance. As per Argentine-Israeli educator Gustavo Perednik , antisemites often pass off their aggressive instinct as a "struggle" of "the oppressed" against the "powerful" to maximize its appeal to left-wing audience. Another common antisemitic trope is that "the Jews control the media and Hollywood ". In Eastern Europe , the Czech politician Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , believed that Jews "controlled
13426-415: The middle period, he displayed syncretic tendencies, following not just the earlier Stoics, but making use of the works of Plato and Aristotle . A polymath as well as a philosopher , he took genuine interest in natural science, geography, natural history, mathematics and astronomy . He sought to determine the distance and magnitude of the Sun, to calculate the diameter of the Earth and the influence of
13563-623: The most powerful countries. The New Black Panther Party (NBPP), a black separatist group, has actively peddled the myth. Prior to a 2006 Democratic primary runoff in the U.S. state of Georgia , the NBPP alleged, So-called Jews in Israel in what's really Palestine…some player haters, some Zionists , some so-called Jews who the Book of Revelations […] calls the Synagogue of Satan . When
13700-532: The myth that "global banking is dominated by the [Jewish] Rothschild family " traceable to the medieval prevalence of Jews in moneylending . In the Middle Ages , Jews were restricted from most professions and pushed into marginalized occupations, such as tax collection and moneylending , due to the Roman Catholic Church's prohibition on Christians charging interest for loans. In 1179,
13837-538: The otherwise unexplained deaths of children. In some cases, the alleged victims of human sacrifice have become venerated as Christian martyrs . Many of these – most prominently William of Norwich (1144), Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (1255), and Simon of Trent (1475) – became objects of local cults and veneration; the cult of Hugh of Lincoln gained the support of Henry III and his son Edward I , giving it official credibility and helping it to be particularly well remembered. Although he
13974-445: The pirates and again in 62 BC during his eastern campaigns, and asked Posidonius to write his biography. As a gesture of respect and great honor, Pompey lowered his fasces before Posidonius's door. Other Romans who visited Posidonius in Rhodes were Velleius, Cotta, and Lucilius . Ptolemy was impressed by the sophistication of Posidonius's methods, which included correcting for the refraction of light passing through denser air near
14111-564: The popes had generally refrained from endorsing the blood libel, and it concluded that the accusations were unproven in a general sense, but it left open the possibility that some Jews had committed ritual murders of Christians. Other contemporary Catholic sources (notably the Jesuit periodical La Civiltà Cattolica ) promoted the blood libel as truth. Today, the accusations are rarer in Catholic circles. While Simon of Trent 's local status as
14248-464: The present day. Its notoriety sprang from the intervention of the Crown, the first time an accusation of ritual killing had been given royal credibility. The eight-year-old Hugh disappeared at Lincoln on 31 July 1255. His body was probably discovered on 29 August, in a well. A Jew named Copin or Koppin confessed to involvement. He confessed to John of Lexington , a servant of the crown, and relative of
14385-649: The press", despite his previous objection to antisemitism during the Hilsner affair . In Western Europe , Arthur Griffith , the founder of the Sinn Féin party decisive to Ireland's independence, was subscribed to the "Jewish media control" trope. Griffith alleged that Dublin newspapers were almost all Jew rags [...] Fifty other rags like those which have nothing behind them but the forty or fifty thousand Jewish usurers and pick-pockets in each country and which no decent Christian ever reads except holding his nose as
14522-666: The principal divisions of philosophy made Posidonius a renowned international figure throughout the Graeco-Roman world and he was widely cited by writers of his era, including Cicero , Livy , Plutarch , Strabo (who called Posidonius "the most learned of all philosophers of my time"), Cleomedes, Seneca the Younger , Diodorus Siculus (who used Posidonius as a source for his Bibliotheca Historia ["Historical Library"]), and others. Although his ornate and rhetorical style of writing passed out of fashion soon after his death, Posidonius
14659-450: The readers' approval or condemnation. For Posidonius "history" extended beyond the earth into the sky; humanity was not isolated each in its own political history, but was a part of the cosmos. His Histories were not, therefore, concerned with isolated political history of peoples and individuals, but they included discussions of all forces and factors (geographical factors, mineral resources, climate, nutrition), which let humans act and be
14796-505: The reality of divination and the Stoic doctrine of the future conflagration ( ekpyrosis ), but Posidonius wrote in favour of these ideas. As a Stoic, Posidonius was an advocate of cosmic "sympathy" (συμπάθεια, sympatheia )—the organic interrelation of all appearances in the world, from the sky to the Earth, as part of a rational design uniting humanity and all things in the universe. He believed valid predictions could be made from signs in nature—whether through astrology or prophetic dreams—as
14933-459: The same meridian as they were assumed to be. The longitude difference of the points, slightly less than 2 degrees, is not negligible compared with the latitude difference. Translating stadia into modern units of distance can be problematic, but it is generally thought that the stadium used by Posidonius was almost exactly 1/10 of a modern statute mile. Thus Posidonius's measure of 240,000 stadia translates to 24,000 mi (39,000 km) compared to
15070-438: The same room with a human corpse. Historian Alexis P. Rubin noted, Church and secular leaders sharply denounced these defamations [...] people refused to abandon this myth [...] Popes, kings and emperors declared that Jews, if for no other reason than their strict dietary laws banning even the smallest drop of blood in meat or poultry, were incapable of the crime. The Christian populace was not impressed. Among those who refuted
15207-525: The scale or brutality of the Inquisition , with the victims heavily Jewish . Some Catholics exaggerate their role in the WWII rescue of Jews to downplay the Catholic history of brutal systemic antisemitism . The blood libel accusation's origin dates to the 12th century. The first recorded accusation against Jews was associated with the death of William of Norwich . Torture and human sacrifice in
15344-826: The school on Rhodes . Posidonius was celebrated as a polymath throughout the Graeco-Roman world because he came near to mastering all the knowledge of his time, similar to Aristotle and Eratosthenes . He attempted to create a unified system for understanding the human intellect and the universe which would provide an explanation of and a guide for human behavior. Posidonius wrote on physics (including meteorology and physical geography ), astronomy , astrology and divination , seismology , geology and mineralogy , hydrology , botany , ethics, logic , mathematics, history, natural history , anthropology , and tactics . His studies were major investigations into their subjects, although not without errors. None of his works survives intact. All that have been found are fragments, although
15481-548: The size and distance of the Moon . Posidonius constructed an orrery , possibly similar to the Antikythera mechanism . Posidonius's orrery, according to Cicero , exhibited the diurnal motions of the Sun, Moon, and the five known planets. Posidonius in his writings on meteorology followed Aristotle. He theorized on the causes of clouds, mist, wind, and rain as well as frost, hail, lightning, and rainbows. He also estimated that
15618-434: The soul. Although a firm Stoic, Posidonius was syncretic like Panaetius and other Stoics of the middle period. He followed not only the earlier Stoics, but made use of the writings of Plato and Aristotle . Posidonius studied Plato's Timaeus , and seems to have written a commentary on it emphasizing its Pythagorean features. As a creative philosopher, Posidonius would however be expected to create innovations within
15755-628: The testimony of Galen (an adherent of Plato), Posidonius wrote his own On Passions in which he instead adopted Plato's tripartition of the soul which taught that in addition to the rational faculties, the human soul had faculties that were spirited (anger, desires for power, possessions, etc.) and desiderative (desires for sex and food). Although Galen's testimony is still accepted by some, more recent scholarship argues that Galen may have exaggerated Posidonius' views for polemical effect, and that Posidonius may have been trying to clarify and expand on Chrysippus rather than oppose him. Other writers who knew
15892-480: The time of the First Mithridatic War when Roman rule over the Greek cities was being challenged by Mithridates VI of Pontus and the political situation was delicate. Under Posidonius, Rhodes eclipsed Athens to become the new centre for Stoic philosophy in the 1st century BC. This process may have already have begun under Panaetius , who was a native of Rhodes, and may have fostered
16029-518: The time. Even though emperor Frederick II cleared the Jews of any wrongdoing after an investigation, blood libel accusations persisted in Germany. At Pforzheim , Baden , in 1267, a woman supposedly sold a girl to Jews who, according to the myth, then cut her open and dumped her in the Enz River, where boatmen found her; the girl cried for vengeance, and then died. The body was said to have bled as
16166-403: The titles and subjects of many of his books are known. Writers such as Strabo and Seneca provide most of the information about his life and works. For Posidonius, philosophy was the dominant master art and all the individual sciences were subordinate to philosophy, which alone could explain the cosmos. All his works, from scientific to historical, were inseparably philosophical. He accepted
16303-455: The tradition of the philosophical school to which he belonged. David Sedley remarks: On the vast majority of philosophical issues, what we know of both Panaetius and Posidonius places them firmly within the main current of Stoic debate. Their innovatively hospitable attitude to Plato and Aristotle enables them to enrich and, to a limited extent, reorientate their inherited Stoicism, but, for all that, they remain palpably Stoics, working within
16440-548: The trope often goes by Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG), which accuses the Jews of "controlling Western governments" for selfish ends, like benefitting Israel . The ZOG is widely peddled by antisemites, such as the Neo-Nazis , white nationalists , Islamists and black supremacists . Malcolm X , a well known Black American activist, believed in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , which he introduced to
16577-406: The true religious beliefs of Jews are "black hatred against all humans and religions", and no Arab country should ever sign a peace treaty with Israel . Tlass re-printed the book several times. Following the book's publication, Tlass told Der Spiegel , that this accusation against Jews was valid and he also claimed that his book is "an historical study ... based on documents from France, Vienna and
16714-470: The two-thousand year relationship between Judaism and Christianity, many of them marred by anti-Jewish polemic and Christian persecution of Jews , some rabbis have fulminated against the church [...] But contemporary anti-Semitic polemicists are not interested in learning or reporting about the historical development of Jewish-Christian relations . Their goal is to incite hatred against Judaism and Jews by portraying them as bigoted and hateful. As early as
16851-465: The woods with stab wounds. William's hagiographer, Thomas of Monmouth , falsely claimed that every year there is an international council of Jews at which they choose the country in which a child will be killed during Easter, because of a Jewish prophecy that states that the killing of a Christian child each year will ensure that the Jews will be restored to the Holy Land. According to Monmouth, England
16988-564: The writer states that when Antiochus Epiphanes entered the temple in Jerusalem, he discovered a Greek captive, who told him that he was being fattened for sacrifice. Every year, Apion claimed, the Jews would sacrifice a Greek and consume his flesh, at the same time swearing eternal hatred towards the Greeks. Apion's claim likely reflects already circulating attitudes towards Jews as similar claims are made by Posidonius and Apollonius Molon in
17125-461: Was 5,000 stadia due north of Alexandria, and the difference in the star's elevation indicated the distance between the two locales was 1/48 of the circle, he multiplied 5,000 stadia by 48 to arrive at a figure of 240,000 stadia for the circumference of the Earth. His estimate of the latitude difference of these two points, 360 degrees/48=7.5 degrees, is rather erroneous. (The modern value is approximately 5 degrees.) In addition, they are not quite on
17262-541: Was a Greek politician , astronomer , astrologer , geographer , historian , mathematician , and teacher native to Apamea , Syria . He was considered the most learned man of his time and, possibly, of the entire Stoic school . After a period learning Stoic philosophy from Panaetius in Athens , he spent many years in travel and scientific researches in Spain , Africa , Italy , Gaul , Liguria , Sicily and on
17399-508: Was acclaimed during his life for his literary ability and as a stylist. Posidonius was the major source of materials on the Celts of Gaul and was profusely quoted by Timagenes , Julius Caesar , the Sicilian Greek Diodorus Siculus , and the Greek geographer Strabo . Posidonius appears to have moved with ease among the upper echelons of Roman society as an ambassador from Rhodes. He associated with some of
17536-559: Was also said to have been emitted by the body. Reportedly, the child was hung upside down, forced to throw up the host and was cut open. In consequence, the Jews of Oberwesel and many other adjacent localities were severely persecuted during the years 1286-89. The Jews of Oberwesel were particularly targeted because there were no Jews remaining in Bacharach following a 1283 pogrom. Additionally, there were pogroms following this case as well at and around Oberwesel. Rudolph of Habsburg , to whom
17673-509: Was appointed as one of the Prytaneis . This was the most important political office in Rhodes, combining presidential and executive functions, of which there were five (or possibly six) men holding the office for a six-month period. He was chosen for at least one embassy to Rome in 87/86, during the Marian and Sullan era. Although the purpose of the embassy is unknown, this was at
17810-475: Was chosen in 1144, and the leaders of the Jewish community delegated the Jews of Norwich to perform the killing, after which they abducted and crucified William. The legend was turned into a cult, with William acquiring the status of a martyr and pilgrims bringing offerings to the local church. This was followed by similar accusations in Gloucester (1168) , Bury St Edmunds (1181) and Bristol (1183). In 1189,
17947-544: Was credited for creating some mathematical definitions, or for articulating views on technical terms, for example 'theorem' and 'problem'. Some fragments of his writings on astronomy survive through the treatise by Cleomedes , On the Circular Motions of the Celestial Bodies , the first chapter of the second book appearing to have been mostly copied from Posidonius. Posidonius advanced the theory that
18084-598: Was elevated to an unprecedented status in Nazi Germany. Luther's antisemitic thesis is considered by many Western historians to have brought about the Holocaust , despite the 400-year lapse. Beyond Abrahamic religions , the demonization of Jews is also common among new religious movements , one of which is the Black Hebrew Israelites . Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI) believe that African Americans are descendants of ancient Israelites . However,
18221-473: Was featured in a scene in the Syrian TV series Ash-Shatat , shown in 2003. In 2007, Lebanese poet Marwan Chamoun, in an interview aired on Télé Liban , referred to the "... slaughter of the priest Tomaso de Camangiano ... in 1840... in the presence of two rabbis in the heart of Damascus, in the home of a close friend of this priest, Daud Al-Harari, the head of the Jewish community of Damascus . After he
18358-669: Was never canonized, the veneration of Simon was added to the General Roman Calendar . One child who was allegedly murdered by Jews, Gabriel of Białystok , was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church . In Jewish lore , blood libels served as the impetus for the creation of the Golem of Prague by Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel in the 16th century. The term 'blood libel' has also been used in reference to any unpleasant or damaging false accusation, and as
18495-635: Was reportedly found by the house of Jöly, a Jew. The Jewish community was then implicated. The penalties imposed upon the Jews included torture, execution, expulsion, and steep financial fines. Justinger argued Jews were out to harm Christianity. The historical impossibility of this widely credited story was demonstrated by Jakob Stammler, pastor of Bern, in 1888. There have been several explanations put forth as to why these blood libel accusations were made and perpetuated. For example, it has been argued Thomas of Monmouth's account and other similar false accusations, as well as their perpetuation, largely had to do with
18632-412: Was slaughtered, his blood was collected, and the two rabbis took it." A novel, Death of a Monk , based on the Damascus affair, was published in 2004. Notes Antisemitic canard Antisemitic tropes , also known as antisemitic canards or antisemitic libels , are " sensational reports , misrepresentations or fabrications " about Jews as an ethnicity or Judaism as a religion. Since
18769-557: Was the site of a blood libel accusation against the town's entire Jewish community that led to around 31–33 Jews (with 17 women making up this total) being burned to death on 29 May of that year, or the 20th of Sivan of 4931. The blood libel revolved around R. Isaac, a Jew whom a Christian servant reported had deposited a murdered Christian in the Loire . The child's body was never found. The count had about 40 adult Blois Jews arrested and they were eventually to be burned. The surviving members of
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